Starbucks gets giant thank-you card for gay marriage

I hope Starbucks headquarters in South Seattle has a really big mail slot in its front door. It’ll need one.

Supporters of gay marriage are planning to deliver a giant thank you card Wednesday afternoon, a gesture commending the company for publicly expressing its support of same-sex marriage in Washington state. The card comes from SumOfUs and other groups that gathered signatures after the National Organization of Marriage entered a Starbucks shareholder meeting and grilled the coffee company’s CEO about the move.

Still, almost 650,000 people virtually signed the thank you card online. SumOfUs writes on its website that Starbucks isn’t a perfect company, but its support of marriage equality deserves recognition:

Starbucks isn’t perfect — and in the future we’ll probably be asking it to improve its policies on other issues. But it’s a big deal when a giant multinational corporation with no particular connection to the gay community realizes that there are real business benefits — from better employees to happier customers — to standing up for progressive ideals. As SumOfUs members and ethical consumers, we can’t just criticize corporations when they do bad. We also want to encourage them when they do good.

King5 reports the card will contain over 40,000 signatures. But other signatures gathered online will presented in the form of a petition of support.